Best 6.8 SPC Magazines [2024 Review]
Today, I'll be covering our choices for the best 6.8 SPC magazines. I'll also quickly go over what to look for when choosing a 6.8 SPC mag.
If you're in a hurry, here's a preview of our two favorite options. They're both reliable and affordable!
Preview
PSA D&H 6.8 SPC 25 Round
ASC 6.8 SPC (5, 10, 15, 25 Rd)
What to Look for When Choosing a 6.8 SPC Magazine
Below are the factors we considered when choosing the best 6.8mm Remington Special Purpose Cartridge (SPC) Magazines.
Reliability
No matter what caliber or gun you're looking to buy magazines for, the most important factor to consider is reliability. At the range, reliability issues can be extremely annoying... But for self-defense, they can be the difference between life and death.
When evaluating products, we not only rely on our own experiences, but also those of our friends and others around the web.
With that said, it's always a good idea to put your gear through its paces. We've done our best to find the most reliable options, but nothing beats testing how a magazine works in your rifle for yourself.
Quality and Durability
How reputable is the company making a magazine? What materials are used? Will it stand the test of time?
These are questions we asked when evaluating these magazines and questions you should be asking too.
Compatibility
While many 6.8 SPC mags are made to function with AR-15 lowers, others are designed specifically for different platforms like the LWRC SIX8. We've excluded these from our list to avoid incompatibility issues.
It's also worth noting that AR-15 style 6.8 SPC magazines can also be used for .224 Valkyrie and .22 Nosler. (For those new firearms, this does not mean you can shoot .224 Valkyrie or .22 Nosler from a 6.8 SPC chambered rifle.)
Best 6.8 SPC Magazine Options
Now that we've covered what we looked for, here are our picks for the best 6.8 SPC magazines:
1) Palmetto State Armory D&H 6.8 SPC 25 Round AR-15 Magazines
Palmetto State Armory is our favorite manufacturer of budget AR-15s and AR-15 parts. They teamed up with metal magazine manufacturer D&H Tactical to create our top pick.
$19.99 at PSA
Prices accurate at time of publishing
As we've come to expect from Palmetto State Armory, these PSA D&H 6.8 SPC mags are affordable, yet high quality. They are designed to be used with AR-15s.
The redesigned 2nd generation mags feature a carbon steel body and Magpul anti-tilt follower. The Magpul anti-tilt follower is a nice touch for improving reliability, considering Magpul knows their way around a magazine.
Speaking of Magpul, we chose their products as some of the best 5.56/.223 AR-15 magazines and they were the top performer in a test conducted by the U.S. Army in 2015. While it's unfortunate Magpul doesn't make their own 6.8 SPC mags, we appreciate any option that at least uses their followers.
Both the body of this magazine and the follower are marked 6.8. This should help prevent magazine mixups if, for example, you took both your 5.56 NATO and 6.8 SPC AR-15s to the range.
In addition to 6.8 SPC, these mags also work great with .224 Valkyrie.
PSA and D&H only offer 25 round magazines. While we appreciate Palmetto State Armory's seal of approval on the PSA D&H mags, you can also find D&H mags without PSA branding. Either option is excellent, but you may want to check out the D&H only branded magazines to compare the most up to date prices and availability.
D&H 6.8 SPC 25 Rd Mags
$19.99 at PSA
Prices accurate at time of publishing
2) ASC 6.8mm SPC AR-15 Mags (5, 10, 15, 25 Round Options)
Ammunition Storage Components, more commonly known as ASC, is another fantastic manufacturer that makes 6.8 SPC magazines... Plus, they're even more affordable than the option from PSA covered above, making them a strong contender for the best 6.8 SPC magazines.
From $14.99 at GunMag
Prices accurate at time of publishing
ASC magazines tend to be extraordinarily popular among those enthusiastic about more obscure calibers. You might have seen them mentioned in other lists of ours, including the best 6.5 Gendel magazines.
While ASC mags may be less known to the average gun owner, their 6.8 SPC mags are among the most used for this caliber. They're also some of the most reviewed options on retailer websites like GunMag Warehouse and PSA.
Unlike PSA and D&H, ASC offers 6.8 SPC magazines in a variety of capacities. They also manufacturer them in both black and flat dark earth (FDE).
ASC 6.8mm Remington SPC magazine capacity options include:
- 5 Round
- 10 Round
- 15 Round
- 25 Round
- 25 Round Blocked to 15 Round
- 25 Round Blocked to 10 Round
All of these are made from 410 Stainless Steel Alloy and heat-treated to improve strength. They're also chemically treated to be corrosion resistant. Last to note is they have chrome silicon springs and ASC's enhanced anti-tilt followers.
Though we feel that more expensive options may be slightly more durable long term or facing extreme use, ASC 6.8 SPC mags have always performed well for us to date. Hundreds of customers seem to echo this in product reviews and forum posts across the web.
ASC 6.8 SPC Magazines Review
Product Name: ASC 6.8 SPC Magazines
Product Description: ASC mags are a strong contender for the best 6.8 SPC magazines. Despite being very affordable, they've proven themselves to be incredibly reliable and durable. They're available in 5, 10, 15, and 25 round options. All of these are made from gauge 410 stainless steel alloy and have anti-tilt followers. ASC is also one of the few manufacturers to offer 6.8 magazines in both black and flat dark earth (FDE).
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Quality
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Reliability
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Durability
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Value
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Capacity & Color Options
Summary
ASC 6.8 SPC magazines have performed well in our experience and a huge number of online shoppers/forum users have reported similarly positive experiences. Once you factor in their price, they’re hard to beat.
Pros
- Very Affordable!
- Many capacity and color options.
- Reliable and Durable.
Cons
3) Precision Reflex 6.8 SPC AR-15 Mags
Precision Reflex's 6.8 SPC magazines might be the most rugged option available... But they'll cost you!
From $40.99 at Brownells
Prices accurate at time of publishing
The most noteworthy feature of these magazines is that they're constructed of two welded steel halves, rather than folded steel. This makes them smoother, removing sharp edges and makes them feel higher quality. It also allows them to be slightly larger internally to accommodate marginally longer cartridges (longer COL).
Like the PSA D&H mags, these use Magpul anti-tilt followers. They're available in 10, 15, and 25 round options.
While they may offer some slight benefits over other magazines on our list, they're probably not worth paying twice as much or more. If you're having problems with your other .224 Valkyrie and 6.8 SPC magazine though, you may want to give these a shot.
4) Barrett Firearms 30 Round 6.8 SPC Magazine
If 25 rounds just aren't enough, there's this 30 round 6.8 SPC magazine from Barrett Firearms.
From $39.99 at Brownells
Prices accurate at time of publishing
For starters, this is the only popular 6.8 SPC 30 round magazine.
Barrett is also one of the manufacturers who has championed 6.8 SPC the most. This magazine comes included with their 6.8 SPC REC7 rifles, though it will work with all AR-15 style rifles.
Lastly, both this magazine and their REC7 rifle have received a lot of praise.
Magazines That Didn't Make the Cut
Our list of the best 6.8 SPC magazines isn't particularly long, but there are only so many quality manufacturers making magazines for this caliber. Of the remaining options that didn't make the cut, here's why we left them off our list:
ProMag - We generally stay away from all ProMag products due to bad experiences, and we didn't feel the need to give them another shot with this caliber.
C Products Defense (CPD) is a solid manufacturer of magazines, but we feel ASC beats them in terms of quality and reliability while being priced the same. Give CPD a shot if you'd like, but we prefer ASC.
Magpul's LWRC SIX8 6.8 SPC magazine is made specifically for the SIX8 series and not for AR-15s. Why LWRC decided to make a 6.8 SPC rifle that's not compatible with AR-15 lowers is beyond me, but it's a decision they made nonetheless.
Wrapping Up
The PSA D&H 25 round 6.8 SPC magazine is an excellent choice at an affordable price, but it's not available in other capacities. ASC's 6.8 SPC magazines are more affordable while having options in 5, 10, 15, and 25 round capacities.
Precision Reflex's mag may be the best 6.8 SPC magazine available, but it's the most expensive on our list (twice as much as the PSA D&H). Barret offers the only 30 round 6.8 magazine on our list, but it's also more than twice as much as ASC mags.
You unlikely to have issues with any of these options, but we feel ASC mags are the best value on our list. If planning to use any magazine for anything as serious as self-defense, I implore you to test it thoroughly with your rifle!